Method and apparatus for monitoring user attention with a computer-generated virtual environment

Abstract

Avatars focal points are monitored as the Avatars move within a virtual environment to determine, statistically, where users are looking at in the virtual environment. The Avatar's focal point may be used to control a virtual brush that may paint the virtual environment in an attention monitoring function. A statistical distribution about the focal point is used to affect the coloration, and other known information about the virtual environment may be used to affect the statistics. As attention records from multiple users are collected, they may be overlaid to obtain a very accurate picture of how users are interacting with the virtual environment and with objects in the virtual environment. The attention monitoring function may generate a thermal overlay to the virtual environment to visually show where users tend to focus within the virtual environment. Users' attention on three dimensional and graphic objects may be monitored as well.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]NoneBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to object and virtual environment design and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for evaluating user perception in a 3D virtual environment.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Advertising is ubiquitous. Typically, when a company wants to advertise their product they will either create their own advertising campaign, or hire an advertising agency to create an ad campaign. The advertising agency will generate an advertisement and, if the advertisement is approved by the company, may coordinate placement of the advertisement in the relevant media. Many types of advertising have been created over the years, including: print advertising (newspapers, magazines, brochures, and fliers); broadcast advertising (television radio and the Internet); outdoor advertising (billboards, kiosks, tradeshows and events); and covert advertising ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]As Avatars move within the virtual environment, the place where the Avatar is looking is tracked to determine where users of the virtual environment are likely to be looking. The Avatar's focal point may be used to control a virtual brush related to a statistical distribution about the focal point. This brush is used to color the virtual environment in an attention monitoring system to statistically show what the user was likely to be looking at within the virtual environment. As attention records from multiple users are collected, they may be overlaid to obtain a very accurate picture of how users are interacting with the virtual environment and with objects in the virtual environment. The attention monitoring system may use the records from multiple users to form a thermal overlay to the virtual environment and objects within the virtual environment to show which aspects of the virtual environment are attracting the most attention. The thermal overlay may be mapped to the surfaces of the virtual environment so that the thermal overlay may be viewed by navigating through the virtual environment. The attention monitoring system may be used with objects in the virtual environment, both graphical and three dimensional, to determine how users interact with the objects.

Problems solved by technology

Particular advertisements may resonate well with particular demographics, while other advertisements may be found to be ineffective or, even worse, offensive to particular demographics.

Unfortunately, obtaining genuine user feedback on an advertisement or product is not trivial.

Unfortunately, each of the methodologies has certain drawbacks.

One problem with the use of focus groups is that the users / customers may not necessarily understand their own reactions to the advertisement / product.

Accordingly, they may not be able to give accurate feedback to the person running the focus group.

This too may skew the results from the focus group.

However, it can be an expensive way of testing since the test subjects must be observed and their reactions painstakingly recorded and then analyzed.

Also, it may be hard to get a statistically significant selection of the user / customer base.

For example, if the person being observed is aware that they are being observed, they may not act in a normal manner thus rendering the results less than perfect.

However, it requires expensive test equipment which makes it less desirable from an economic standpoint.

Additionally, as with the videotaping / observing method, the test environment is typically different from that where the advertisement / product will be viewed and used, which may color the responses obtained using this method.

Typically, these indirect ways occur after the advertisement / product has been released and, hence, are too late in the development cycle to affect the advertisement / product.

However, since there are many possible factors that may affect overall sales, this type of feedback is generally of lesser value than some of the other methods discussed above.

However, because of the limitations associated with these methods, and the costs involved in implementing some of the more accurate methods, it would be advantageous to provide another way to obtain user feedback.

Determining which features of a product are appealing, however, encounters many of the same difficulties as advertising.

Additionally, product design is extremely important because, once the design is finalized and manufacturing has begun, making changes to the product design may be very costly.

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